The present invention generally relates to a wear, and now abandoned more particularly to a wear for controlling a musical tone which detects a movement of a player so as to control a musical tone based on the detected movement of the player.
Conventionally, a musical tone is generated by playing a musical instrument such as a piano, a violin and the like or by use of a vocal cord of the player. In addition, the known musical tone generating apparatus cannot convert a body action of the player into the corresponding musical tone.
Therefore, the present applicant proposed a musical tone control apparatus which converts the body action of the player into the musical tone, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 108,205 and European Patent Application No. 87114944.9, for example.
Next, description will be given with respect to an example of the proposed musical tone control apparatus in conjunction with FIGS. 1A to 4.
FIG. 1A is a front view showing an appearance of the proposed musical tone control apparatus which is mounted to the player, and FIG. 1B is a back view thereof. This proposed musical tone control apparatus consists of a main body 1 and four detectors such as a detector 2 for a player's left elbow, a detector 3 for a player's right elbow, a detector 4 for a player's left shoulder and a detector 5 for a player's right shoulder. The main body 1 is mounted to a player's waist by a belt B, and the detectors 2 to 5 are respectively mounted to the player's left elbow, the player's right elbow, the player's left shoulder and the player's right shoulder.
Next, detailed description will be given with respect to the above-mentioned detectors 2 to 5. First, the detector 2 is constructed as shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, a lever 8a is fixed at a shaft 7a of a potentiometer 6a, and this lever 8a is arranged so that this lever 8a can be freely put in and out of an inside of a cylinder 9a as shown in FIG. 3. In the inside of the cylinder 9a, a spring 10a is provided in order to pull the lever 8a therein. In addition, a fixing portion 11a is formed at an edge of the cylinder 9a, and this fixing portion 11a is fixed at a center of the player's arm.
When the player bends and stretches his left elbow, the lever 8a and the cylinder 9a is moved in response to such bending and stretching movement of the player's left elbow so that the shaft 7a is revolved. Hence, the resistance of the potentiometer 6a must be varied in accordance with a revolving angle of the shaft 7a, i.e., a bending angle of the player's left elbow. Such resistance variation of the potentiometer 6a is passed through a cable 12a and then transmitted to the main body 1 (shown in FIG. 1A), wherein a tone pitch of the musical tone to be generated is controlled based on such resistance variation of the potentiometer 6a, for example. Similar to this detector 2, the detector 3 is constructed and operated. More specifically, the resistance variation of a potentiometer 6b provided within the detector 3 is passed through a cable 12b and then transmitted to the main body 1, wherein the tone pitch of the musical tone to be generated is controlled based on such resistance variation of the potentiometer 6b.
Next, the detector 4 is constructed as shown in FIG. 4. In FIG. 4, when the player moves his left shoulder up and down, the resistance of the potentiometer 6c must be varied in response to the movement of the player's left shoulder. Such resistance variation of the potentiometer 6c is passed through a cable 12c and then transmitted to the main body 1, wherein a tone volume of the musical tone is controlled based on such resistance variation of the potentiometer 6c. On the other hand, the detector 5 is constructed as similar to the above-mentioned detector 4. A resistance variation of a potentiometer 6d provided within the detector 5 is passed through a cable 12d and then transmitted to the main body 1, wherein a tone color of the musical tone is controlled based on such resistance variation of the potentiometer 6d.
In the proposed musical tone control apparatus described heretofore, the following problems must be inevitably occurred since the four detectors 2 to 5 are mounted to clothes of the player by sewing the detectors 2 to 5 on such clothes. First, it is burdensome for the player to mount such detectors. Secondly, once such detectors are mounted on the clothes of the player, it is not easy for the player to adjust mounting positions of such detectors.
In addition, the proposed musical tone control apparatus suffers the following problem since the main body 1 and the detectors 2 to 5 are connected by slackened cables 11a to 11d. More specifically, the player's body must be entwined with the cables, or the cables must be caught in equipments and the like surrounding the player, for example. Hence, it is not easy for the player to properly handle the cables. In addition, imperfect contacts between the main body 1 and the detectors 2 to 5 must be occurred frequently. Further, the cables may be broken when the cables are caught in the equipments surrounding the player, for example.